I am on a painting expedition in Northumberland. I have one brief visit in the past to wet my whistle, but now its work....
The weather has been glorious, sunny and very mild - just what a painter should like..... however here the skies have been slightly overcast, the sea has been like a mill pond and the visibility poor. It's weather like this that doesn't stir my soul - it doesn't lend itself to acrylics and palette knife painting in my mind... So in the light of it being perfect conditions on the face of it, I am left disappointed. I have trudged many a mile with my paints mostly to no avail (except getting a little fitter!) However after arising at 6am this morning to see if the early view of Dunstanburgh castle 'did it for me' (which it didn't, grey grey and more grey....) I happened upon many another cheery sight. As I am reading a book on the Danish 'hygge' to quote.... "a sense of wellbeing comes from an active engagement with the world, from cultivating small scale happiness" (The book of hygge by Louisa Thomsen Brits) it seems right to give you a taste of my 'small scale' experiences ......
I awoke and lay in bed, opened the blinds to the pinking of high clouds in the morning light, and a small murmuration of starlings. I made myself get up (I am not a natural morning person) I walked to the dunes and towards the beach. As I walked over the little bridge, a mum and its ducks were startled and the ducklings swam away at a pace, a huge heron took flight just to my left. The marham grass had droplets of dew on their tips that were capturing the morning light. As I approached the sea the low yellow sunlight back lit the tops of the small breaking waves, and sea birds played in the shallows diving into the waves. I sat on the damp sand to take this all in as the sun disappeared behind a cloud. I decided to move on to Alnmouth and see what the views there were like. I was rewarded on my early morning journey with a close sighting of a barn owl, and three hares - must save up for a telephoto lens me thinks. So wish me luck with finding a stirring subject in Alnmouth before it is time to head home....